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We breifly touch the subject of network management products with Tim Kcehowski of APCON at booth 636. We anticipate providing a more in-depth discussion about network management solutions in an upcoming full length podcast.

Something funny happened on the way to Windows 9. Ever since the introduction of Windows 8 and the release of 8.1, I’ve been concerned about the corporate users. More specifically, how such a large user base was going to be convinced to jump from the rock solid Windows 7 to the next version. I’m relieved and a little surprised to see how well they appear to be handling the mess they created with the tiles (metro) interface. I love the concept for touch based computing (such as tablets and hybrid laptops). The corporate users that I saw using Windows 8 lost a lot of productivity. Windows 8, without a touchscreen, added extra clicks to some basic functions and completely undid all the years of training end users to hit the start button to find things. Continue reading →

Intel just released the all new Xeon E5-2600 series processors. These processors replace the V2 branded predecesors. They add more processing power for the buck as well as a series of updates including memory to power consumption.

Highlights of the new platform

Supports dual processors with 4 to 18 cores

Socket R3

4x DDR4 channels (1333, 1600, 1866 (2DPC), 2133 (1 DPC) RDIMM, LRDIMM

PCIe 3.0

DMI2 (4 lanes)

10x SATA3 ports

Fortville (40GbE), Springfield (1GbE)

These slides highlight the new memory DDR4 vs the older DDR3. More speed, less power.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX) has just officially released an 8TB drive ahead of their competitors. As the amount of data increases for individuals and corporations alike new less expensive solutions are certainly welcome. Individual’s have more pictures, music and videos. Corporation are struggling to keep pace with retention laws and the production of more and more documents. Higher storage density, reduced power consumption and lower price per TB are always appreciated.

These new drives are enterprise-class and use the latest SATA 6Gb/s for fast throughput.

There are many sites out there that allow you to easily test your internet speed. Why would you want to test? I see a lot of companies that pay for a speed that they don’t have or can’t reach because of hardware limitations. If you have an older firewall, for example, it may have a lower maximum throughput than the new speed you are paying for.

1. http://www.Speedtest.net – One of the most popular ones out there.
2. http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/ – A great alternative
3. http://www.speedio.com – It also shows the number of connections per minute and average ping time
4. http://www.Pingtest.net – Broadband quality analyzer
5. http://www.BandwidthPlace.com – This is the simplist and easiest to use of them all. Just press Start.

If you find that you have reached a maximum much lower than expected then do the following steps.

STEPS TO DIAGNOSE
1. Connect you computer directly to your router (eliminate the switch)
– If you get full speed then your router or switch are probably to blame
2. Plug your computer by itself in the router (assuming your router is providing DHCP service)
– If you get full speed then your switch is probably to blame.

Check that all you computers are connecting consistently at the correct speed and not falling back to a slowing speed. Keep in mind that “falling back” is a dramatic loss of speed. You’ll notice a difference going from a 1Gbps (a.k.a. 1000Mbps) to a 100Mbps link.

Make sure that all the cables you use at CAT 6 or 5e at a minimum for 1G speeds. Make sure all your cables respect the maximum lengths and are in good shape. Also check that the wiring in your walls is CAT 5e certified. If you’re moving to 10G speeds, then you’ll want the CAT 6 as a minimum.

It’s summer and the new installment of BattleField 4 is out for premium players. Although I enjoy playing the game sporatically, it’s been difficult to enjoy since it appears to suffer from one problem after another.

If you find yourself having the latest driver for your NVidia card and the game stops cold with a DirectX error try this: Continue reading →

If you updated your Windows 7 with SP1 to Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) and now find that every URL shows nothing but a blank page, here are some things to try. Please note you should have a backup of your favorites and configuration as these steps may result in loss of either.Continue reading →

Microsoft is continuing their war on the cyber criminals. This week they took down several botnets by taking over domains owned by the well known free dynamic DNS provider “NO-IP”. No-IP stated that they were not notified of the malicious domains by Microsoft. As a result of the takeover, several legit no-ip customers have apparently suffered down time and blockage related issues.Continue reading →

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